Emanuel: Rush is the GOP's brain

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel charged Sunday that conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is “the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party.”

Emanuel, speaking in deliberately soothing tones, told anchor Bob Schieffer on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Limbaugh has been up front about “praying for failure” by President Obama.

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“I think that’s the wrong philosophy for America,” Emanuel said. “What Americans want us to do, and what President Obama has been very clear about, is work together setting our goals …

“Our goal, Bob, is to continue to reach out and it’s our desire that the Republicans would work with us and try to be constructive, rather than adopt the philosophy of somebody like Rush Limbaugh.”

Emanuel’s comments, which came unprompted, were in line with a new strategy by White House allies in the private sector to make Limbaugh synonymous with the GOP. But Emanuel’s move for the first time brought that strategy into the West Wing, an unmistakable elevation of the effort to damage Republicans by depicting them as taking their marching orders from a deeply polarizing talk show host.

The other goal, as articulated by Emanuel Sunday and other Democratic strategists over the past month, is to dare Republicans to reject Limbaugh, something few in the party are likely to do given the millions of listeners he commands each week.

“When a Republican did attack him, he was — clearly had to turn around and come back and basically said that he's apologizing and was wrong,” Emanuel noted.

He was referring to Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) who last month took a shot at Limbaugh to POLITICO only to appear on his program the next day and plead having momentarily had “foot-in-mouth disease.”

Emanuel’s comments Sunday came only two days after the union AFSCME and Americans United for Change began airing an ad showing a clip of Limbaugh saying “I want him to fail,” along with quick cuts of top Republican congressional leaders saying, “No … No. … No … No … No … No.”

It was the second Limbaugh-focused ad by the liberal groups, who sought to drive a wedge between congressional Republicans and Limbaugh after the unanimous House GOP opposition to the stimulus last month by airing radio ads targeted at Republican senators and asking if they would "side with Rush Limbaugh too?"

Some of the Democrats' top strategists, including close Emanuel friends Paul Begala and James Carville, are involved in the shaping of the campaign aimed at making Republicans own Limbaugh.

Limbaugh, appearing in Washington Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, defended and even amplified his earlier remark.

“This notion that I want the president to fail, folks — this shows you a sign of the problem we've got," Limbaugh said. "That's nothing more than common sense. And to not be able to say it? Why in the world do I want what we just described — rampant government growth, indebtedness? … What possibly is in this that any of us want to succeed?”

Emanuel pointed to the fact that Limbaugh was a major speaker at CPAC as a sign of his status in the Republican Party.